The Smile When You Tore Me Apart
by JazzyBabe10
Summary: Could she bear to live out eternity knowing the one person she had trusted above all else had never actually cared for her? No, she didn’t think so… 50 years later, Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett are captured by the Volturi. Guess who’s there to greet them.
1. P: There's Just More For Me Out There

_Ok, so I've been throwing this idea around for a while and, since I'm going out of town for a day or so, thought I'd post the prologue for this. I have chapter one finished as well and am halfway done with chapter two, but it'll still be a while until I post more. I would like to have a few chapter lined up before I update._

_Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Twilight… but the characters are just too much fun to play around with!_

--

"Ok, let's talk." She sounded much more confident than she felt. He had barely spoken a word to her in three days, and now all of a sudden he wants to take a walk? She had been preparing herself for the worst, leaving Forks, and was ready to argue against whatever ideas he'd managed to come up with in that creative head of his.

She looked up into his eyes, fixed on her in a stone cold glare, and she felt her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Bella, we're moving." His statement was blunt, no emotion in his voice. So he had prepared for the worst, too, then; her bad reaction. No worries, then. She could discuss this with him as the adult she now legally was.

Breathing out a defeated sigh, she looked up at him disapprovingly. She wouldn't argue it if he didn't agree, but she had to try. For Charlie's sake. "Well, can't we wait another year? I mean, at least until graduation-" He cut her off, glaring.

"No Bella. By 'we' I meant my family and myself."

A lump formed in her throat once she understood what he was saying. She wasn't a part of his family. "I - don't understand…" she trailed off, unable to push any more words past her throat without choking.

"Bella, I'm tired. Tired of pretending to be something I'm not and tired of testing my self control. It's just not worth it." He appeared struggled, but vampire expressions were much harder to read than humans'. "You're not worth it."

Her eyes went wide. "But I thought, I mean, you said-" Nothing was making sense anymore. He'd told her countless times how much he loved her and how she was his whole life; the reason for his existence even! How he'd waited a century for her.

"I lied."

And just like that everything fell into place. Like all the pieces of a puzzle were finally coming together to form a great and terrible picture. One she wished she could unsee. He never meant any of it. He had played her as easily as he played his piano. She was his toy, his pet; messing around with her emotions so he could go home and have something to joke about with his family. And she would never notice because she was too dazzled by his beauty and perfection and the fact that he wanted her just as much. That was the plan all along. Just to change up their lives for some excitement. She began to wonder how many other poor girls had been put into her situation before. Probably dozens. So many bright, young, self-conscious women made to believe a beautiful young man wanted her. There was just one little flaw with her theory.

"B-but, then, why did you tell me your secret?" she barely choked out, holding back her angry tears.

He smiled softly, as if he were negotiating with an insane person. As if this whole thing wasn't serious. "Bella, you figured that one out on your own. I couldn't just deny it because you'd never have believed me. You're very stubborn." Her watery eyes tightened into a glare.

"So that's it then. This whole thing has been a joke?!" He nodded once. She laughed bitterly. "I've just been your play thing. Some entertainment in this sodden shithole?!" He smiled 'sympathetically' again.

"Bella, don't be like this." He reached out to stroke her cheek, attempting to dazzle her, but she flinched away. He sighed, dropping his hand to his side and his eyes to the ground. He glanced back up at her through his eyelashes, disappointed to see she'd looked away. She was prepared. "Hey, kiddo, I'm sorry. There's just more for me out there, and, well, let's face it. You're stuck here, with Charlie."

That did it. Kiddo?! Who did he think he was, her father?! She raised her hand to slap him, but he caught her around the wrist. "Bella, stop. That will only cause you to break your hand, and you can't afford a medical bill."

"Why do you care how I spend my money?!" she growled out, and he almost felt afraid of the tiny, fragile girl before him. Almost. The degrading smile returned to his lips.

"Bella, just because things didn't work out doesn't mean I don't care about you, in a way. Save your hospital visits for the next time you fall over and break something, will you?" She nodded at the ground, not wanting to give herself away by looking at him. He let go of her hand.

In a flash she whammed it into the side of his face, feeling the bones crunch beneath her skin and not caring in the slightest. The physical pain gave her a reason to let the tears fall. He looked down at her, as if he was a parent scolding their child. She glared through her watery eyes up at him, clutching her broken hand in her good one.

He made a move to grab her mangled limb, but she pulled away, wincing at the pain that shot throughout her whole arm. "Don't touch me!"

She started marching away from him, farther into the forest, when he called out to her. "Bella, where are you going?!" He was at her side in an instant.

"Does it matter?! Just leave!"

"It's dangerous out there," he argued, his voice level and calm. As if he hadn't just ruined the best part of her life. The part that had been a lie.

She ignored him, stumbling on a branch. He caught her by the elbow, which, once released, slammed into his stomach. She ignored that pain too-now both arms were useless-and continued away. "What are you still doing here?! Just go already!" There was a quick sigh, and when she turned around she was pleased and saddened to see that he was, in fact, gone. She checked around in every direction and found him not there. But that didn't stop her walking.

She continued on for miles, until the already dark of the forest became nighttime. And even that didn't stop her. It wasn't until her foot connected with the root of a tree and she landed on her knees and broken limbs at the edge of a meadow that she gave up her marching. It was a perfect circle; it was beautiful; it pained her more than her broken hand and elbow combined. This was only one of the many places that manipulator had taken her during their half a year together.

That's when the floodgates truly opened. She couldn't stop the waterfall of tears that streamed out of her eyes. They were flooding her cheeks the way memories, all the memories that had ever meant anything to her, flooded her brain. All of the doors he'd opened for her, the times he saved her from her own clumsiness, the few kisses he'd given her… he should have been awarded an Oscar.

She was so busy with her sobbing that she hadn't realized another being enter the premises. Only when a childlike giggle rang out through the open field did she stop crying and look up. Her breath caught in her throat.

"W-w-what are you doing here?" she stuttered as the giggler moved closer.

"You didn't honestly think I'd just forget about you? After everything you put me through?"

"I didn't do anything to you," Bella argued, her tone lacking the severity she'd intended for it. All she could manage was a pathetic whisper.

"Maybe not, but you are guilty by association," the vampire argued, her eerily slow steps never faltering as she approached the broken girl at the edge of the meadow.

"Not anymore." The words were a bitter mumble as Bella's puffy brown eyes glared daggers into the damp earth beneath them. Her aching arms clutched her waist, and the position she was in, combined with her drained face, almost made her look as though she was preparing to vomit.

"Oh, yes, I heard your little spat. How unfortunate. That does put a damper on my original plans."

Bella tried to gulp back the fear building within her. It only made the vampire's twisted grin more wicked. "Plans?" she all but squeaked.

"Oh yes. You didn't think I was just here for a visit, did you?" she asked, her voice a degrading, childlike sound that made Bella's jaw tighten defensively. It was too similar to the tone _he'd_ been using earlier. "You see, last spring, when your mate-Oops!" Another sob escaped Bella, and she pressed her hand to her mouth to keep quiet. "Sorry, it's just that I had this whole speech planned out ahead of time. Improvising has never been one of my strong points. Anyway, last spring when _Edward_ destroyed my mate, yes that's right, James and I were romantically involved," she added at Bella's look of incredulity. "I took off to start planning. I've been lurking in the distance, just out of range of those precious human-lovers of yours-or not-waiting for the opportune moment to strike." Bella's eyes drifted shut, and the vampire was now only three feet away. Her voice got quieter with each step. "I _was_ simply going to kill you, a mate for a mate, you see. But then Edward had to go and complicate things by coming to his senses." She let all of the words sink in to the human girl's annoyingly slow brain.

Bella tried to fight off the blame she felt towards the Cullens, she really did. But if it wasn't for them and their cruel, selfish lies, she could be at home, happily reading a book while Charlie's dinner simmered away on the stove. If it wasn't for their twisted sense of humor, she never would have been introduced to James and his little coven, the Cullens would have never needed to kill James, and therefore royally piss off Victoria, who would have never come to the insane conclusion that Bella needed to die as punishment for a death she wasn't specifically involved in. Funny how chains of events played out.

"But do not fret. I have come up with a different way to pay Edward back for what he did to me." Bella's broken brown eyes looked up into the glowing crimson eyes of Victoria, who crouched down to her level. "Since killing you will no longer even the score, I think I should have to go the opposite way. From the looks of things, keeping you around forever seems to be the best way to get under his skin, wouldn't you agree?" Bella's eyes widened in fear. For the first time in her life she actually feared for herself. Ironic how it would be too late.

Could she bear to live out eternity knowing that one person she had trusted above all else had never actually cared for her? No, she didn't think so. But what other alternative was there? She looked around and spotted a rock nearby.

Victoria grabbed it before her hand had even moved an inch. "Now Bella, do you really think spilling your own blood will stop me? If you haven't noticed, I've recently fed." Bella stopped breathing, hoping to suffocate before Victoria could bite her. "Very well then, I'll make this quick." She reached for Bella's right hand, the broken one, examining the crescent scar left by her former lover only six months earlier. "But first, remember this, and let it be the thought that carries you through the next three days. The pain I am about to inflict on you could have easily been avoided if it weren't for the selfishness of the Cullens." And with that said, the childish, cat-like vampire bit down in the same area James had, her smaller mouth not able to fully cover the scar, and Bella released her breath in a blood curdling scream.

--

_Hmm, I think that's a decent sized prologue, wouldn't you agree? The more reviews the sooner I update!_

_~Jazz~_


	2. 1: We Have Some Special Circumstances

_Sorry! I planned to update last night, but I forgot! For a little while I am planning on updating every other Sunday. I have chapter 2 finished and am about to have my beta take a look at it, and chapter 3 is in the works. So, here's the first official chapter. Not much more to say than that._

_Disclaimer: Yea, I don't own Twilight. Quick, call your local paper!_

--

Fifty years later, the sun was rising on a freshly watered trees located somewhere in the middle of Africa, its light reflecting off of the tiny raindrops that clung to the untouched foliage. Three beautiful, pale people crouched behind a bush, miles away from their friends and family. What little sunlight broke through the treetops glittered off of their skin like diamonds. None of them were dressed impressively; worn, tattered clothes clung to their bodies, stretched from overuse.

"Is it clear?" whispered the largest of the three, his dark curly head of hair peaking out above the bush. His eyes snapped this way and that, checking for any sign of danger.

"Em, you asked us the same question three minutes ago." The respondent was blonde, and had a serious look on her face. "Edward, do you hear anything?" She and the large man turned towards their other companion, a distracted looking young man with bronze colored hair. He glared at a rock near his shoe. "Edward!" she whisper yelled.

"Huh, what?" He looked around curiously, his expression somewhat exhausted.

The other two groaned. "Edward, you're going to get us killed if you keep this up! Do you think you could focus for ten minutes? Huh, could you do that?!"

"Emmett, calm down," the blonde instructed, annoyed at his childish antics and erratic behavior. "And be quiet. We don't need to be found." After taking care of Emmett, the blonde turned her attention to Edward. "Let's get going." The three of them stepped out from behind their large hedge and continued on their path into the forest. They were miles away from their current living area, hunting for big game. They kept their senses alert for any sign of a jungle cat or danger, walking along for miles.

"Emmett," the blonde woman suddenly asked, "Are you ever going to wash that grease off? It's been like, a week and a half since we fixed that old rust bucket."

"It's my reminder of the great time we had," he replied suggestively. She smacked his arm lightly, but her lips were turned up at the corners in a shy smile. "Plus we don't have very good plumbing," he reminded sarcastically. None of them were pleased with the situation they were in, but it was too late to do anything about it. And, despite everyone's complaints, they were much happier this way than with the alternative. "Yea, yea, at the next river we come to. I promise."

They never made it to the river.

--

Many countries away, in the largest conference room of Castle Volterra paced an equally pale man, his skin more powdery than the people from the forest. His long dark hair draped his robe-clad shoulders, framing his worried face.

"They were supposed to be back yesterday!" he ranted to himself. His pacing was inhuman like, his form merely a blur to any human eye. This man wasn't the type to get agitated, and it took a great deal to make him pace. It took even more to make him shout.

"You're going to wear through the floor," stated a dry tone from one of the three throne chairs occupying the room. His face was as bored as his voice, and his skin was just as frail as the man he had spoken to. That man ignored him, quickening his steps.

After another ten seconds, a third man cried out from one of the other throne chairs, "Oh for crying out loud Aro, calm down!" He, unlike the other two powdery pale men, was a blonde, and his forehead almost appeared to have a permanent crease to it. "Walking around like that won't make them show up any faster!"

"But they should be back buy now!" Aro repeated, this time directing the statement at someone rather than muttering it to himself. "These rebels must have more power than we thought if they can take out three of our best guard members! And why haven't we been updated on our status by our South American correspondents?!"

His panicked rant was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Yes, what is it?!" he shouted at the human secretary that had bothered to interrupt him. She was very lucky they had fed only a week earlier.

"Pardon the interruption, sir, but Demetri, Felix, and Alec are back with-"

"Oh thank God!" Aro cried, cutting off the rest of what the secretary had said. Still ignoring her, he slumped down into his throne with a sigh of relief. "Send them in here, and tell them they better have a pretty good reason for their tardiness."

"I-" his look was no nonsense. "Ok." She backed out of the room cautiously, shutting the door as quietly as she could. It was still loud compared to the way her employers did things. The three men, plus a few of their most trusted guard members, listened as the human's heart beat grew more distant with her annoyingly slow steps.

"I swear, sometimes…" the man called Aro let his sentence trail off, the bridge of his nose pinched between his index finger and thumb.

The faint footsteps of Demetri, Felix, and Alec sounded from near the door, and the next second they were standing before him. Just as he was about to go off on them for their tardiness and how it wasn't acceptable in these hard times, he noticed that they weren't alone. Three vaguely familiar figures were lying limp in the arms of his guard members. It took him a moment to locate whose memories he'd seen them in, but when he did, his angry expression morphed into a malicious grin.

"We found them wandering through the forest, hunting. They have the golden eyes of a vegetarian," the medium sized one, Demetri, explained in his professional tone. For proof, though Aro needed none, the small one known as Alec peeled open the girl's eyelid. If he didn't know any better Aro would have sworn that she was asleep. However, he did know better, and knew that she was just under the influence, if you will, of Alec.

"Yes, I know very well who these three are. Alec, if you would please, wake them up so we can give them a proper greeting, would you?" After a confused, suspicious glance on his part, Alec slowly removed his power from the three captives, and one of the larger guard members took the man he'd been holding back.

It only took them one quick glance for the three of them to know where they were, and when they did they lost it. Jane, Alec's twin sister with a gift just as sinister, used her painful talent on the three of them individually until they stopped struggling.

"Now, now, I think it would be in all of your best interests to remain calm," Aro began gently, his manner façade in full effect. None of them were buying it, judging by their intense glares. However, they did remain completely still.

"Why are we still alive?" the largest of the three rebels asked in a dangerous voice. He was eyeing his captor, Felix, sizing him up to see if he could take him. It looked like it would be a fairly even fight.

"Well, for information," Aro stated as though it were obvious. Low growls rumbled through the prisoners' chests, but they did not act on their instincts. "And because it would appear we have some special circumstances." Everyone, the guard and even his brothers, turned confused looks on Aro. Marcus hadn't looked that interested in something for over a century. "If I may," he gestured towards the skinnier of the two males, glancing at his hand. Teeth were bared. Renata, Aro's personal shield, shifted nervously by his side, her hand centimeters away from his shoulder. "Very well; Santiago." A hooded guard member stepped out from his place on the wall, and held the bronze haired kid's head in place. Aro stepped forward with Renata in tow, placing his powdery hand on the younger vampire's face. He closed his eyes for a moment, absorbing his history.

"Ah," he breathed after a short while, "I was correct." He stepped away from the boy, Edward, and opened his eyes, a satisfied glint in his ruby eyes. "Well then, it appears we do have a problem." He turned his attention to the guard member still holding Edward's face. "Santiago, could you be so kind as to go get our final member from her chamber?" He was, of course, referring to the final member of their close guard.

"What for?" the man asked, sounding as confused as everyone else appeared to be.

"Because I would like to…" the old vampire paused, choosing his words carefully. He finished his sentence with a smile that made it seem as if he had an inside joke with someone, "I would like to _introduce_ her to the Cullens."

A few hisses erupted from throats of the guard members, but the man called Santiago yelped, flipping his hood down to get a better look at the prisoners. His eyes were suspicious. "Are you sure that's the best idea?" he asked hesitantly after a moment of eyeing them.

The three Cullens looked around uncertainly. Santiago and Aro seemed to be the only ones clued in on the secret. Everyone else had acted as expected. It was scary, not having their psychic sister, Alice, around to clue them in.

"Yes, I am absolutely certain."

Santiago looked like he'd just seen a ghost. "Alright, but I'm not coming back. She's not a whole lot of fun to be around when she gets as pissed as she's going to be."

While Santiago was gone Aro got the histories of the other two vampires, though it wasn't really anything he hadn't known through Edwards. After recapturing the moments of the trip from his guard members Aro addressed the group as a whole.

"Yes, everyone, please welcome Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie Cullen," he introduced. A few more hisses and growls rang out amongst the guard, although there were a few malicious chuckles thrown in. This caused the fugitives' eyes to tighten. Edward's, however, held some confusion as well. "What is it, Edward?"

"I-" he hesitated. Would it be a good idea to reveal this weakness to them? Well, Aro already knew, no doubt, so what was there to lose? The worst that could happen would be he'd remain as confused as he was at that moment. "I can't read any of your minds."

A smirk crossed Aro's pasty pale lips for the briefest of a second before it vanished. His eyes did, however, remain smug. "Ah, you will find out about that in a matter of moments."

The pounding heart of the secretary sounded throughout the halls once again, and Aro nearly groaned in frustration. This one wouldn't be lasting long with the way things were going. "What is it?" he practically snapped the millisecond the door was open.

She looked taken aback for a moment before she recomposed herself. "Um, Victoria is back from Australia," she mumbled.

"Oh, send her in." His tone was suddenly much lighter. He looked excited. "She'll love this." The secretary nodded and shut the door, not even bothering trying to sound quiet this time, and hustled down the hall.

The three Cullen children shared worried looks. It couldn't be the same Victoria, could it? What were the odds? Slim, probably. Although, now that each of them thought about it, she hadn't been part of their resistance…

"Ah, Victoria," Aro greeted warmly as the large mahogany door shut almost silently behind her. She walked right past the captives without a glance and offered her hand to Aro. "I am pleased to know you took care of that problem."

"Yes, well, newborns are my specialty," she bragged in her childish voice.

"Yes, and I knew your talent would be very useful for that task."

"Now, what was so enjoyable that I had to rush in to see?" she inquired, and once more the smirk grew on Aro's face. He gestured to the three figures behind her. She turned around and faced their shocked eyes.

Her mouth formed a giant O and she made no move to cover her loud giggle. "Does she know?" the redhead finally managed to get out after almost ten seconds of uncontrolled laughter.

"Santiago is sending her down even as we speak." He turned towards the guards holding the Cullens. "Don't let her see them before we can explain the situation to her."

They immediately moved their bodies so that the prisoners were blocked from view of the door, and a few seconds later said door opened.

"Santiago!" whisper-yelled a musical, angry voice back down the hallway. The lightest sounds of running footsteps could be heard for a moment.

It was the most melodic, angelic voice Edward had ever heard, and he felt terrible the moment he thought it, but he wasn't going to lie to himself. It was the sweetest thing he'd ever heard in his one hundred and fifty five years.

"Shit," she cursed under her breath before turning around to face the three kings. "Um, listen, I can explain about the-"

"This isn't about the chandelier that we've already had replaced," Caius, the blonde brother, barked, and his glaring eyes locked in the direction of the door. Eventually Caius looked away, right before the musical voice spoke.

"Oh, you're back," she nearly growled, causing Victoria to smirk.

"Miss me?" she cooed.

"No, Victoria, I am not bi-curious, and that answer is never gonna change, so if I were you I'd quit setting myself up for disappointment," the girl bit back. Victoria's mouth, once again, dropped open from shock, but this time she didn't look so excited. She composed herself a moment later.

"Really, cuz I didn't think you were curious at all these days." An emotion almost similar to guilt passed over the redhead's face for a moment, though Edward couldn't be sure. And not being able to read her mind was almost as frustrating as not knowing who that beautiful voice belonged to. And the fact that he was entranced by one of his enemies.

"And you are?" the girl returned easily, arms crossed over her torso and eyebrow raised in expectation. Victoria glared, but gave no other response. Clearly, the mystery girl had one that argument. "You summoned?" Aro turned his head in the direction of the door, same as pretty much everyone else in the room.

"Yes, well, you'll be glad to know that your suggestion about South Africa proved to be very helpful," Aro complimented with a smile. Edward growled, along with Emmett and Rosalie, and suddenly felt disgusted with himself and the mystery girl. How could someone that sounded so angelic and beautiful have sold out his family and friends? And more importantly, how did she know where they were? "However, it would appear that the fugitives we captured are old friends of yours." This took the girl by surprise. She couldn't recall ever meeting any vampires that weren't part of the Volturi or someone she'd been sent to persuade to join the Volturi. Unless… "Or, rather, they once considered you a part of their family."

Pieces began to fall into place for Edward and his siblings, though they all shied away from what they were seeing. It was not at all possible. Alice surely would've noticed it if that had happened, so it hadn't. It must have been someone else they'd known at some point during their existences. They each began compiling a list of vampires they'd met throughout their travels.

But then the guards turned them around to face the door.

The first thing they noticed was her shoes. They were extremely high, about a five and a half inch heel with an inch and a half platform. Her pants, framed by a typical Volturi robe, were slim and white, hugging her perfect legs fantastically. Her shirt was as black as her heels, with a V-neck cut and made with thin material. Then they reached her face, and they all gasped at who stood before them.

"Bella?"

And in that moment there were three things of which Edward was certain.

One, his Bella was a vampire.

Two, she was, and for how long he did not know, a member of the Volturi, and a shield to their minds, no less.

And three, she was unconditionally, and irrevocably enraged with him.

--

Thousands of miles away, in the new Vampire Mutiny Headquarters, the psychic Alice Cullen jolted out of her latest vision with a broken hearted sob.

"Alice, what's wrong?!" Jasper, her empathy husband, was at her side in an instant, gripping her shaking shoulders as he tried to catch her pained black eyes.

"I need to see Carlisle," she gasped out, and instantly Jasper knew what had happened. He wouldn't be seeing his siblings again.

The pair made their way quickly through the labyrinth of sandy tunnels to the main room, where several vampires were huddled around Carlisle and his blueprints.

"And I think if we added an extra twenty yards onto the back tunnels we could-" Alice cut off the musings of the blonde leader, shouting his name as she sprinted over to him.

"There's no need for those plans anymore, Carlisle, we need to get everyone out of here at once!"

"What's happened?" he asked, all serious even as the vampires he'd been talking to shouted through the tunnels for everyone to join them. Alice relayed the images of her most recent vision, scanning for anything new in the process. What she saw caused her to freeze on the spot for a solid three seconds. And then she released words in an agonized moan.

"Oh no…"

--

_Ok, so I know that was quite the shocker, but I had to end it there. Chapters will get longer as we go, but for now I think 3,200 words is a pretty decent size. Please review! They motivate me!_

_~Jazz~ _

_Oh, and I've decided to do chapterly questions. I've seen people doing them and decided, "What the hell?" They aren't random, however, and they have nothing to do with you personally. Just stuff I've been wondering about. This chapter question is going to be "Do you think vampires can have haircuts?" _


	3. 2: Decisions Are Not For the Family Pet

_Ok, so I got a much better response on the last chapter, which is good. Yea, enjoy!_

_Oh yea, and if any of you hate music, I'm telling you now that this story isn't right for you. K, thanks!_

--

Two minutes earlier, Bella had been lying peacefully on her bed, happily tearing paper out of her notebook as she continued to rewrite lyrics to a poem. Sure, she could've just as easily typed the words on her laptop and saved a few trees, but she just didn't have the patience to wait the three seconds for it to load.

"No, no, no!" she screamed, violently tearing out yet another off-white sheet from the spiral-rings, ripping it to shreds before letting the confetti float melodramatically to the floor. They were forgotten before they'd even left her hands. Her pencil had already begun its assault on the next page.

She'd written many other poems in the last fifty years, and they'd all been just as difficult. But they were slightly important to the Volturi, so she took her time on them. However, her words were looking rather repetitive as of late. She really needed to find something else to occupy her brain besides anger, unless, that is, she wanted to give up her job as 'treasurer' to the organization. It wasn't as important as some of the other things she did, but it kept her from thinking about things.

"Knock, knock," came the voice of her favorite co-worker from outside her door, just before he entered through the tiniest opening possible. Something was wrong. He only ever came in that way when something very bad was happening. The notebook was forgotten by the time it landed on the end of her bed.

"What's up?" she asked, struggling to sound casual. Santiago took a tentative seat near her notebook, glancing at it in hopes of a sneak peek. She, however, was not dumb and had remembered to close the book before tossing it.

"Aro wishes to see you in the throne room," he relayed uncertainly, avoiding her eyes. Oh, it was bad then. Assumptions jumped into her mind, and she was panicking by the time she reached her closet to change into more appropriate clothes. Torn jeans, a lewd tee shirt, and red Chuck Taylor hi tops were simply not acceptable when meeting with the head honcho of their establishment.

"He doesn't know about the thing last week… ya know, that we broke?" Her nerves were a little bit more obvious as she nibbled her bottom lip, an old habit not easily broken, and glanced at him through the corner of her eye.

"We?" he asked skeptically, his worry forgotten for a moment.

She sighed dejectedly, laying out her clothes on the end of the bed. "Ok fine, _I_! Does he know that _I_ broke the chandelier last week during practice?!"

Santiago shrugged, looking away from her again. "He just wants to see you in the main office."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"What makes you think I'm not telling you something?"

"Because you just answered my question with a question," she pointed out, smug. He grinned softly as he left to give her some privacy.

Two and a half seconds later, Bella met Santiago outside her door, dressed in a black short sleeved tee with a sweetheart neckline, white denim pants, and super tall black heels. Oh, and who could forget the ever-stylish black Volturi robe? The perfect accessory to creep anyone out! Looping her arm loosely through his, the two began to make their way through the many tangles and stairs of Volterra Castle. She just had to have the deepest, darkest room in the castle. This thought had recurred in Santiago's mind many a time throughout knowing Bella. She simply told everyone she preferred the solitude. Only Santiago knew the full story behind that.

"Hmm, I've been here for forty five years, and I've never actually took the time to appreciate my surroundings," Bella mused, and Santiago grinned, despite his strange mood. "I think maybe we should take our time and just memorize the amazing architecture of this fine… wall." Her inspirational rant ended with that blunt note as she realized she what exactly she was complimenting. The walls were made of, for lack of a better term, cement that had been painted red some centuries ago and hadn't been touched since. A better look at them actually caused her to wince. The water stains weren't helping its case; or hers.

"Yea, they're just so fantastic," Santiago agreed sarcastically, his slight Hispanic cadence ringing in his words. It would have been pretty swoon-worthy had she any swooning left in her. She decided to steer her thoughts in a more positive direction.

"Still, I'm not in any rush. You?"

"Definitely not," he murmured, causing her to gulp unnecessarily. "And besides, he won't care too much." Her head cocked to the side. One thing Aro never tolerated was tardiness, and he made damn sure that everyone was well aware. "Demetri, Felix, and Alec are back." Just mentioning this, she noted, his voice was filled with nerves.

"Ok, what's wrong? You're hardly ever like this! It's making me anxious."

"It's nothing. Don't worry." And yet worry she did. She worried all the way down the hall, up the three flights of stairs, through the many corridors, and all the way to the giant oak doors behind which sat the Volturi brothers' main office. She gulped again.

And, just as she pushed the door open, Santiago's arm was gone from hers, and she turned in the direction of his hastily retreating footsteps. "Santiago!" she called after him, just in time for him to round the corner out of sight. And she would've gone after him if she hadn't already opened the door. "Shit." As soon as the word left her mouth she felt like she should've blushed because of the looks she was surely receiving from under the hoods of her fellow guard members. She turned her attention on the three 'kings'. "Um, listen, I can explain about the-"

"This isn't about the chandelier that we've already had replaced," Caius, the blonde brother, barked, and he and Bella locked eyes in a glaring contest. She broke the gaze after a moment when a familiar head of red hair caught the corner of her eye.

"Oh, you're back," she nearly growled, causing Victoria to smirk.

"Miss me?" she cooed.

"No, Victoria, I am not bi-curious, and that answer is never gonna change, so if I were you I'd quit setting myself up for disappointment," Bella bit back with a glare. Victoria's jaw fell in disbelief. She composed herself a moment later.

"Really, cuz I didn't think you were curious at all these days." That remark was below the belt, and they both knew it.

"And you are?" Bella returned easily after only one agonized look passed through her eyes, arms crossed over her torso and eyebrow raised in expectation. The redhead glared in response, unable to think of a reasonable comeback. Smirking, Bella turned her attention to the center of the three brothers. "You summoned?" she inquired in a suddenly dry tone, eyebrow raised in expectation.

"Yes, well, you'll be glad to know that your suggestion about South Africa proved to be very helpful," Aro complimented with a smile. Growls rose from somewhere in front of where Demetri, Felix, and Alec stood, and for a moment her head snapped in the direction of the angry sounds, annoyed that she was out of the loop. "However, it would appear that the fugitives we captured are old friends of yours." This took her by surprise. She couldn't recall ever meeting any vampires that weren't part of the Volturi or someone she'd been sent to persuade to join the Volturi. Unless… "Or, rather, they once considered you a part of their family."

Understanding was just one of the many emotions that crossed her stunning features, along with anger, remorse, and, most surprising to the bystanders, fear. Aro, seemingly unaware of her reaction, gestured for the three guard members to turn the captives around and face their captor.

It was just as she'd feared, and she couldn't compose her features enough to hide her obvious emotions.

"Bella?" Edward choked out, his own eyes mirroring her fear and sadness. He, however, did not look angry, and instead of understanding he seemed genuinely confused. There was another one in there, perhaps his most prominent emotion lying undisturbed in his black pools; betrayal.

That would have been enough to send her into a furious rage, ripping him apart in a way she hadn't been strong enough to that day fifty years earlier. Images of a broken right hand and left elbow added fuel to her fire and, thanks to Victoria and her vampire ability to recall and imitate, his lines were forever etched into her perfect memory in his annoyingly beautiful voice.

_We're moving._

_By 'we' I meant my family and myself._

_I'm tired. Tired of pretending to be something I'm not and tired of testing my self control._

_It's just not worth it._

_You're not worth it._

_Kiddo_

One of the few perks of being a vampire that she would always be grateful for was the inability to shed tears. They showed just how weak and vulnerable you felt, and they blurred your vision. Totally invaluable for any situation, especially if one would be feeling mad about something. Tears popping up at that moment weren't very helpful.

Another thing she was grateful for was the mask that could be put up to hide any and all emotions. She took advantage of that after a hundredth of a second looking at Edward. Then she turned to face her 'boss', nodding her head once in affirmation to his judgment.

"Yes, well then, since I wouldn't want to put an unnecessary strain on our relationship," more than one person scoffed at his statement, though Bella remained frozen where she stood, "I will leave it up to you to decide how we take care of them."

She looked back at their faces, knowing she wouldn't have the strength to do what she was about to without looking at them. The sight would've been laughable had certain circumstances been different. The almighty, perfect Cullens were dressed in clothing that could very easily be passed off as rags. Emmett was covered in grease, his pants had dirt stains and giant holes in the knees, and his shirt was stretched from obviously being worn too much. Rosalie's jeans were in no better condition than her husband's pants, and her shirt had little tears in random places. And she wasn't wearing heels! In fact, she wasn't wearing any shoes at all!

And then there was, of course, Edward. Damn him. Only he could make her want to jump him, in a good way, while donning paint splattered, ripped, faded, loose jeans, a t-shirt with tears in the shoulders, a worn and stretched over shirt, and ratty old sneakers . Only Edward. For the briefest part of a moment she wondered what Alice Cullen was wearing, and if her hair was still spiky or if she'd let it fall flat without the product. Or, better yet, if she was using mud to hold it in place.

She glanced back at Edward again, only to find him staring into her eyes with heartbreak and fear. Oh yes, he was staring into her _bright red eyes_ with heartbreak and fear. His 'emotions' reminded her of the situation at hand.

"Yes, I suppose I was once a part of their family," she stated, almost in an off-handed tone. As if they were discussing nothing more than the weather. And all the while she never took her eyes off of Edward, who looked very anxious. Of course it would be impossible for him to know what she was planning, without her emotions shining through her eyes, without her facial expressions, and without the tone of her voice to guide him. She almost wanted to smirk. "But no, you are wrong." She turned to look at Aro for a quick moment before glaring back at Edward, still revealing nothing of her thoughts. "The decision is not mine. Decisions are not for the family pet." She'd spoken those last words through nearly gritted teeth, and the pent up rage boiled over her stone cold mask and into her terrifying crimson eyes, and Edward sucked in a pained gasp.

"No, Bella, don't-!"

She ignored him, her face calmed once more as she turned to the three Volturi brothers. "They're all yours."

And without a last glance she turned and nearly sprinted the few feet to the door, the last thing she heard besides the betrayed shouting of the Cullens was Aro's command for Alec to restrain them. And as the door clicked shut behind her she took off sprinting in the direction of her room, where she knew Santiago would be cowering.

--

The first thing Edward noticed once Alec had 'awoken' him was that he was in a cage. And, if you reached out to touch said cage, as Emmett had just discovered in a similar enclosure next to him, it would burn you to a crisp. So no touching the bars. Then everything came rushing back.

Bella had turned them over to the Volturi. Of course it had been her. It must have been one of those random human memories that could come to a vampire at any given moment. At one point during that summer he had told her that they had some friends in Egypt, and that a couple of Romanian vampires were trying to persuade the Egyptians to borrow their land to a resistance that was forming. Of course the Cullens had believed it to be completely false… at the time. But certainly Bella would have relayed that information to her leaders once it had come to her.

After all, she had no reason to remain loyal to Edward's family. Not after the things he'd said to her.

Rosalie had been furious after the initial shock of seeing Bella as a vampire wore off. She believed Bella had gone looking for Victoria to change her into one of them, and together they'd joined the Volturi to fight against the Cullens. Rosalie had strongly believed that for a solid two seconds until she remembered the exchange Bella and Victoria had shared. They didn't sound like teammates at all, and Bella certainly didn't seem happy to be a vampire. And then the blonde began to point her fingers at her brother.

_What did you do to her?!_ she accused rather harshly, shouting in her head to be sure he heard. He did his best to block her thoughts out, as well as Emmett's, and focused solely on Bella. And that's when he'd noticed her actual appearance.

The first thing to catch his eye, catch it, but not hold it, was her hair. It seemed much darker than when he'd last seen her, black if the lighting had nothing to do with it. Had she dyed it perhaps? Or had that simply happened during her change? It was also much straighter. But when she turned to glare back at him, the color of her eyes nearly broke his lifeless heart.

She didn't look more than three days over eighteen, which was the exact age he'd left her at, and so the red in her eyes could not be played off as that of a newborn. No, she had to have been a vampire for fifty years now, and no newborn blood lasted that long. Therefore, the crimson color of her eyes could only be from a different human; meaning she hadn't chosen the Cullen's choice of diet. That thought brought him to tears, and for a moment he almost believed they would fall.

And then she shut him out of her emotions completely, from her eyes to her face to the tone of her voice, nothing led him on to her train of thought. Not until the very end, where she passed along the fate of not only Edward, but Rosalie and Emmett as well, to the hands of their greatest enemy. And then she left without looking back, despite his loud protests. Alec had made quick work of shutting him up.

Alec was gone now, and instead their babysitter was a brunette woman who appeared to be focusing rather hard on something. That's when he felt a strong tug on something deep within him. He knew who this woman was at once.

This must be Chelsea, the one Eleazar had warned them about from the get go. She could manipulate relationship ties of anything weaker than that of a mated vampire pair. Her only loyalty was to the three Volturi kings, as well as her mate, Afton.

Edward felt a sudden urge to join the Volturi guard. It wasn't a strong one, but the feeling surprised him for a moment. So this was their plan, then. They were going to keep on 'persuading' the Cullens to join their little guard, while at the same time attempt to sever their ties to the other four Cullens. He could hear his siblings' sudden urges to surrender as well.

Looking around, he noticed they were in a large, square room. There were ten cages spread out against two different walls. He and Emmett were occupying two of the cells across from the one Rosalie was in, and Emmett was very upset about this; another technique to force them into surrendering, no doubt. Edward didn't understand why they were keeping him and his siblings alive. Wouldn't it be much easier for them to simply kill off the three rebels and move on with their plans? Oh how he wished he could have access to their minds.

There were two doors, one on each of the empty walls, and the large one called Felix stood still as a statue against one door, and Afton stood at the other. Chelsea was perched on a stool near her mate, still focused intently on the relationship ties of the three Cullens. He decided to voice his questions aloud to them.

"Why are we still alive? Wouldn't it be a lot less trouble to simply kill us off and move on to other things?"

_Edward, are you trying to get us killed?! I'm pretty sure the Volturi guard members aren't dumb enough to fall for reverse psychology!_ He ignored Rosalie's loud thoughts. Just once he'd like her to play the quiet game.

"Oh believe me, Cullen, I'd very much enjoy ripping you to pieces myself," Felix assured, a malicious grin forming on his mouth even as his eyes tightened into a glare. "However, Aro has other plans for you. His reasons are unknown."

"So lemme get this straight. None of you get so much as a say in anything? You guys aren't even clued in on the reasons for doing things? You simply let Aro and his brothers boss you around and possibly put your existences in danger without so much as an explanation for why you're doing it?" Not for the first time since knowing Emmett did Edward wish it was his burly brother that had the gift of mind reading. That way he could be informed of when would be a good time to shut the fuck up.

Afton and Felix bore matching hard lines through their mouths, and it was the former that responded to the captive's inquiries. "We know enough. And besides, a chance at power is worth the risk of the unknown. And from now on I suggest watching your mouth, or something very unpleasant may happen to your mate while you sit by and watch." A snarl ripped through Emmett's chest, causing the guard members to smirk in unison. Creepy. "I'm just saying… accidents happen."

And so they sat and waited, frozen like statues while their throats slowly burned hotter and hotter for the blood that would never again satiate it. Time was lost track of, save for the changing of the guards. Sometimes Chelsea would be replaced by someone with a different method of persuasion. Jane would stop by every once in a while, and was disgruntled further with the denial she would receive after they'd each suffered and hour of her wrath.

Heidi stopped in a few times, tempting them with their wildest fantasies. At first Emmett was offered an impossibly large, ferocious grizzly bear. However, his thirst eventually turned into lust with each day that passed without any contact with Rosalie. Hers were much similar to his, and Edward was quick to learn that, the moments Heidi was tempting them, would be his time to pick at the shield that was blocking the Volturi minds from his.

Heidi saved him for last, and gasped when she saw what he desired most. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me," she assured him with a wink and a devilish smirk. For some strange reason, he wasn't entirely sure he trusted her.

The only way they had of knowing how much time had passed was when, every Saturday night, Aro would come to ask if any of them had changed their minds. Each time they would answer no, and this seemed to amuse him.

On the third Saturday, they were informed that it was dinner time. The infernos that had become their throats burned hopelessly stronger at his words and, since Edward had to deal with not only his but Emmett's and Rosalie's thoughts centered solely on blood and how relieving it would be, he leapt at the bars. He jumped back after a sixtieth of a second with a loud yelp that gathered more than a few chuckles from somewhere in the castle.

Felix, Corin, and Jane came to relieve Demetri, Afton, and Chelsea of their duties an hour later, their eyes each burning bright crimson in honor of their latest feast. While Jane worked her tricks on Rosalie, who could handle the pain surprisingly well, Edward gathered as much stealth as he could from within and began picking at the wood floor beneath him.

At first he thought it had been too easy. They were surrounded and covered by bars with flames running rampant through the insides, so why would they possibly have it resting on a wooden floor? It was too easy. There had to be a catch.

But he'd never been so thirsty in his life, and with the wild desperation of an unsaturated vampire he continued to pick at the floorboards underneath. Corin spoke after a moment.

"Go ahead Cullen. Pick away at the floor. It's not like we keep the fire for the bars underneath this room or anything." That stopped him in his tracks, and his thumbs began to twiddle in his lap as he waited his turn to be picked on by Jane.

--

"Has anything changed?" Jasper whispered to Alice uncertainly. They sat curled up on a couch in the meeting room at the new headquarters, and Alice's hands were pressed to her temples determinedly.

"No," she sighed out after another moment. Neither knew if that was good or bad. Nothing had changed with the status of their siblings for nearly two months now, and it had everyone feeling hopeless and confused. Aro was up to something; of that much Alice was certain. He had no reason to keep Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett alive, and yet he did. Each time she saw him go in to check on them he appeared expectant, and when they declined his offer to join his ranks his expression never changed.

Unfortunately, the leader of the Volturi had been tipped off to Alice's power the day he read Edward's thoughts. He wasn't being definitive with any of his plans, and it was pissing her off to no end. The best guess anyone had was that he wouldn't kill any of his captives. He couldn't afford to waste good talent like theirs in these hard times. They could use all the numbers they could get. And he had the perfect bartering weapon: Bella.

The Cullens had been heartbroken to learn that, not only had Bella joined the Volturi, but had also tipped them off to their last location. It had them all wondering what had made her so cross. Sure, Edward had broken up with her, but so what? Humans got dumped all the time. Something else must have happened that none of them knew about. It was so un-Bella-like to turn them in. Or join the Volturi.

Carlisle, of course, had been smarter about this move. No one besides him and, of course, Alice knew where they were located. All they knew was that it was in a forest. He had flown them all to this latest place in a plane he had been saving for just this purpose and had kept secret from everyone, and no one went outside of a ten mile radius to hunt. Yes, that meant everyone would be sticking to a vegetarian diet unless some poor lost human should happen to wonder into their vicinity. But then, it would be a necessity to get rid of them, should the Volturi happen to be wondering around and bump in to said human. They were taking every precaution.

The rebels could do nothing but sit around the headquarters and make plans based on Alice's visions. Needless to say, the weight of the world was on her shoulders. She wished they would understand how quickly her visions could change, and how impossible it was for her to read every changing variable of every vision that ghosted through her brain. It simply couldn't be done, and to top it off, if they failed and she survived, the guilt she would harbor would be so strong that not even Jasper could rid her of it. He couldn't even relieve her of her stress at the current situation.

"What about now?" Eleazar, the only male Denali member, asked after another moment.

"Still no," she responded a bit more harshly than the last time.

"Well, what if-" Garrett, an adventurous nomad who was currently in the process of becoming the second male Denali member, began to interrupt, but she cut him off.

"Just stop! Don't you people see how difficult this is for me?! I have to check every possible scenario of every single member of the Volturi, and you don't even want to know how many of them there are! Plus I have to keep checking on every vampire that has still decided to remain neutral and see if any of them are even considering picking a side, and if one of them should choose to join us than I have to search around for some record of their information so that one of us can call them up and someone can go fly out and meet them somewhere! And then to top it off I have all of you breathing down my neck asking me every point two seconds if something's changed! AND I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT!" Her entire rant had been shouted using one breath, and now she sucked in a gracious amount of air while she and Jasper worked to calm her down. Everyone was frozen, shocked at her outburst. Alice never lost her temper.

"Alice, we're sorry that we've been so pushy," Carlisle apologized, his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "It's just, these are hard times, and with so much in our minds it's easy to momentarily forget that while yes, your talent is very helpful, it is also very tricky and takes a lot of concentration and patience and isn't one hundred percent certain. I will do my best to remember that from now on." The others murmured their agreements, and Alice smiled shyly.

"Thank you. And I didn't mean to explode like that. I just…" Her sentence trailed off, unfinished as she slipped into a particularly powerful vision.

"Alice, what is it?" Jasper asked after her dark gold eyes refocused. He could feel the terrible emotions rolling off of her and knew it wasn't good.

"In Volterra. Something's changed."

--

_Ooo, cliffie! Bad Jazlyn! Bad! I know, I'm sorry! It was just so tempting! Ending things like that is the best! Well, for me. I personally hate it when that happens in a story I'm reading. But you know what I've found to be a great way of getting the answers you want? Reviewing! :O Jazz, is that really possible? you ask. Why yes! It is! In fact, I have chapter four up and rearing to go, if I get enough requests… _

_~Jazz~_


	4. 3: What Does Bella Have to do With Them?

_Ok, so here's the third chapter. The next one won't be up for another three weeks because, like I said, I'm trying to catch up on twilighted. So just be patient!_

--

"Santiago!" Bella shouted, nearing the door to the room in which she took residence. How she had managed to keep calm throughout that meeting she had no idea. The entire time she had been on the verge of breaking down into tearless sobs. She assumed it was her pride having kept her from that. One thing she was sure of, though, was that Santiago had known exactly what was going on, and yet he had still led her up there; he'd fucking thrown her to the lions! "I know you're hiding in there!" she continued, just before she burst open the door to find her 'friend' sitting on her bed reading over her latest draft of lyrics; which weren't very interesting or long, seeing as she had about two usable lines written down.

He was across the room from her in the blink of a vampire's eye.

"Bella, I know that what I did was bad, but Aro asked me too! I couldn't just refuse him, you know that!" He was backing away with every step she took towards him, but too soon he found he was backed into a corner. Bella continued to advance, a murderous look plastered across her face.

"A little warning would've been nice!" She was practically shrieking now, and if her eyes could still produce tears they would be streaming down her un-rosy cheeks; yes, she was that angry.

He scoffed, momentarily setting aside his situation. "Yea, because you'd have come if I'd told you _they _were waiting." Her jaw set angrily and her arms crossed over her chest. She hated not being right. "Besides, you should have known you would have to face him at some point during the next eternity."

"And you ran like an unnaturally fast little scared human girl because…?"

"Yes, that was dumb, I know," he admitted, trying not glare at her insult as he shifted his feet nervously. "Honestly, I was more afraid of how you'd react to seeing them versus me running away. And at least I didn't try to hide from you!" She rolled her eyes, anger at him fading away and being replaced by her ever present hatred of her conceited ex and his equally terrible family. She crossed over to the middle of the room, slamming down face first onto the bed. Her face burrowed in the pillows and she screamed with all her might into its feathers.

"What am I gonna do?" she whined after her fit. She felt the weight shift on her bed, meaning Santiago had sat down, and turned her head to him. His face held nothing but sympathy for her, and that was both comforting and annoying. There was a loud bang on her door before Bella's second closest colleague came bursting through the door in a fit of rage.

"What was that all about?! Aro looks like he's about to fall on the floor in hysterics, Victoria is looking very proud of herself, which is never good, and you're in here practically balling your eyes out, and don't even try to deny it because I can see the venom swimming in your eyes!" As she waited for Bella to reply, Heidi sucked in a large breath of air. That entire speech had been delivered in one breath, and she may have needed another in case either of them tried arguing with her.

As Bella gripped her middle, her way to keep from falling to pieces, as was a common occurrence with the telling of this story, Santiago delved into the scarcely known past of Bella Swan. He recounted everything he'd been told about Bella's time with the Cullens fifty years earlier. While this was going on, the girl in question hummed quietly to herself, trying to tune out the words being spoken beside her. It didn't work.

By the time Santiago had reached the outing of the truth, better known to Bella as Doomsday, Heidi's jaw appeared to be permanently dislocated, a crease etched into her perfect forehead. Not that Bella could see that, through her clenched eyes. She wished she could hurl, without consuming human food that is, just so that she could feel some sort of relief within her body.

"That motherfucking asshole!" Heidi shouted a moment after Santiago finished telling the only important part of Bella's past, in her own mind, taht is. "And here I'd been thinking it was just living with Victoria that had made her so depressed! Oh, no offense, Bella."

Bella poked her head up from her pillow, just enough to glare briefly at the succubus. Then she merely shrugged and went back to wallowing in her self-misery. Silence gripped the room after that, during which Santiago and Heidi shared uncomfortable looks. There was a lot the two of them wished to discuss, and it couldn't be done in the presence of a certain dark-haired colleague.

Heidi's cell phone rang out after a few more minutes.

"If the three of you could join us in the meeting room, we have recent events to discuss," came the commanding voice of Caius just after Heidi pressed talk. She glanced uncertainly down at Bella, who hadn't even acknowledged the phone call, and was still holding herself in a death grip. She looked like she had some sort of strange vampire flu.

"Um, I don't think Bella will be joining us."

"Well then you and Santiago need to bid her farewell and come participate on her behalf."

"Will do." The call was ended, and the two guard members rose to their feet, heading in the direction of the door.

"Don't tell them anything they don't need to know," Bella muttered just as the door opened. She didn't bother to turn around and see their response. Once the door clicked shut she reached out for her notebook, determined to at least start the lyrics. An idea was forming in her head, but she couldn't quite put it into words yet. Soon she found her mind wandering into her past…

_The first thought that entered Bella's mind after her eternity in the inferno was to remain completely still. Something within her told her that she wasn't safe. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye to her mind, she had realized why she didn't feel safe; she wasn't. The tiniest brush of a foot against wet leaves sounded some two feet and three point six inches away from her left ear, and she had to fight off the sudden instinct to jump up and fight._

_Even as that was being processed at the speed of light in her brain, Bella was able to get a sense of her surroundings. Beneath her fingertips she could feel that she was resting on a damp forest floor, in clothes that were soaked from the inside out. That meant it had rained during her three day transformation period. She had no idea how she knew that that was what the burning had been, but the moment she thought it she knew it was true. _

_She was a vampire._

_And then the memory from three days earlier popped into her head, fuzzy from her human senses. Victoria was an enemy, though she shied away from the reasons why, knowing those memories would hurt, and she had changed her into a vampire out of revenge for some unknown occurrence that was almost completely not Bella's fault. The words Victoria had spoken were the clearest part of that memory._

"But first, remember this, and let it be the thought that carries you through the next three days. The pain I am about to inflict on you could have easily been avoided if it weren't for the selfishness of the Cullens_."_

_And her brain did try to remember. It became impossible for her to remain still as her mind was inflicted with memory after memory of a beautiful boy with messy bronze hair and an incredible poker face. _

_There was chuckling from the same spot that the foot had brushed against the ground a fifth of a second before, only slightly farther up. And still Bella couldn't help but flail around as the lies Edward Cullen had told her attempted to replay themselves in her now much sharper mind._

_All the _'You are my'_s and_ 'I promise'_s were cut off with a quick 'No!' from her thoughts. Then Edward's voice rang out through her mind. She tried her hardest to fight this memory off, but it persisted, and eventually won out. "_Bella, I'm tired. Tired of pretending to be something I'm not and tired of testing my self control. It's just not worth it. … You're not worth it." _And even though she was one hundred percent certain that Edward was not speaking aloud, Bella's newborn red eyes snapped open, wide with fear and anger._

--

"Aro, what is going on?!" demanded Caius angrily from the 'dining' room of the Volterra Castle. He, his two brothers, his wife, Aro's wife, and nine of the twelve most trusted guard members were all gathered angrily around the large mahogany table, most of whom were stood on their feet out anger, confusion, or an interesting combination of the two. Santiago and Heidi entered as sneakily as they could manage, which did not work in their favor. All heads turned in the direction of the open door, complete silence engulfing the room.

"Heh, heh, hey everybody," Santiago began nervously under the scrutiny of his peers and superiors. Heidi rolled her eyes, shoving her friend in the direction of the table. They took two seats at the end of the group, and others began to sit as well.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, we may proceed," Aro began, the only one still standing. "First off, I would like to express my gratitude to Demetri, Felix, and Alec for their success in Africa." There were a few mumbled agreements and compliments, but for the most part the guard members waited impatiently for Aro to indulge their curiosity. "I have been waiting a great deal of time for the capture of any, if not three, Cullens. But I am especially pleased that you've managed to bring in Edward Cullen amongst them."

"But _why_, Aro?" stressed Felix, voicing everyone else's growing curiosity. "What does Bella have to do with them?"

Fellow murmurs of curiosity broke out from the small crowd, rising in volume until Aro finally commanded them all to settle. The few that had risen to their feet sat back down, almost literally biting their tongues as they waited for Aro to speak.

"There are many reason Edward Cullen was an exceptional capture," Aro began in his dramatic way, pausing for the effect. "The first is because, as you most likely figured out upstairs, he, like myself, is a mind reader. However, he does not have to have physical contact to know what someone is thinking." This sparked a string of worried outcries from Aro's audience, and he wasted no time calming it. "There is a catch though. He cannot read any thought, like I can. He can only hear what you are thinking while you are thinking about it."

"Where are they right now?" Afton asked in his serious tone. He, along with his wife Chelsea, was an avid human-hater for reasons unknown other than the fact that he found them to be inferior. If they weren't needed for nourishment he would see to it that they were all destroyed. It angered him greatly that the Cullens chose to spare their lives, and he was hoping Aro wouldn't wait too long to destroy them.

"They are being held in the chambers until we can persuade them to join us." He prepared himself for the onslaught of protest that didn't fail to present itself a short moment later.

"What?! We can't let them…" "Aro, my intentions are not to disrespect you, but have you lost your mind?!" "What's the point?! They're never going to change!"

"Listen! We cannot afford to waste talent and experience like theirs," Aro explained after their voices died off. "Edward's gift will be a great help when we end up facing the resistance, and the more numbers we can gather the better." He turned to Chelsea then. "Chelsea, I expect you can convince them to join us?"

She hesitated a moment, eyes closed as she concentrated on the still unconscious forms of Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett. "Possibly… it would take some time." Her voice wasn't entirely sure, but it was enough for Aro. If there was a possibility he would take it.

"Excellent! And now, Felix, in response to your earlier question, and as many of you may have guessed, Bella knew the Cullens before she joined us." Victoria was snickering in her seat, not even trying to hide it while others gave her envious looks. The Volturi were not known for their patience, and were not ones to be left in the dark. "To be clear, she was a _human_ when she knew them."

There were shocked gasps at this information, Afton and Chelsea groaned and appeared sick, and Victoria nodded in affirmation to any of the curious glances sent her way. Santiago looked over to Aro, pleading with his eyes not to share the rest of Bella's past. But he was not begging, no, his eyes were almost pulled tight into a glare. He held back, because Aro had power over him, but he got his point across. Aro did not mention the love affair that had occurred between Bella and Edward. It didn't matter, five of the other members at the meeting already knew anyway.

Once the group settled back down, yet again, Aro continued, "Now if there are any more personal questions about Isabella's past, you may ask her yourself. It is not my story to tell. I only told you this much so you would understand what had happened this evening. Afton, Felix, go stand guard in the holding room. Alec, Chelsea, the two of you remain in here. Everyone else may disperse."

And so that's what they all did. Of course, Aro's brothers and the wives also stayed behind, and Jane insisted on staying as well, and so they waited in silence until it was the six of them left in the meeting room. Then Aro turned to his little group. "Chelsea, I want you to keep a close watch on a certain bond at all times." She nodded, understanding him immediately, even as Caius, Jane, and Alec squinted their eyes in suspicious confusion.

"What bond, Aro?" Jane inquired after Chelsea left to join her husband. He returned his attention to the other four that were still in his company, joyful mirth to his eyes that suggested he knew something important that was not supposed to be shared with others. This immediately intrigued all but Marcus, who for starters already knew what was happening, but also never seemed to be interested in anything.

"What I am about to tell you does not leave this room," he murmured, so low that they strained to hear. "Bella wasn't just the Cullen's family pet when she lived in Forks…"

--

"_I'm not your angel darling, I'm not your angel darling, I am never gonna be,_" both Bella and Kate Voegele sang out from the large tub in the bathroom that conjoined with the room in which Bella took residence. She never really felt comfortable enough to call anything in the castle her own, since it was not her money that she was spending. While sure, as of late she was the source of one of the main incomes for the Volturi, they had acquired an immeasurable amount of money before her time. She was, mainly, a safety, should anything go wrong with the impending war. So no, she claimed no ownership to anything she was provided with by the Volturi money.

"_I'm not your angel darling, I'm not your angel darling, I, am never gonna be._"

She had her headphones on as loud as they could go, but that did not stop her from hearing the bedroom door open and close, followed by a knock on the bathroom door and Heidi's voice asking, "Are you almost done?" The tone in her question concerned Bella. Things had not gone well, then.

Bella turned off her music player, wrapping the headphones around the body of the tiny machine and setting it on the counter as she stood up, drying off and wrapping herself in one of the red towels that were given in all of the private bathrooms.

"Yea, I'll be right there." She grabbed the black hair binder off of the white marble counter top, twisting her hair in a high ponytail. She grabbed the mp3 player, then, and headed back into the bedroom.

Heidi was situated in the black leather chair set by the almost untouched bookshelf, glancing around the room with her lips pressed together. Heidi always complained about how un-homey the room felt.

There were no personal belonging at all; no pictures on the walls, or by her bed; nothing other than office supplies and the laptop on the black, box shaped desk in the corner of the room; the red desk chair was tucked neatly in place, not even a millimeter out of line; the bed was made up perfectly, not a single crease in the black covers, and the white feather pillows were fluffed up and smooth; the lamp resting on the nightstand that matched her desk was set dead center on the top, off for now; there was a black leather couch pushed up in the corner along the same wall as the back of the bed, and it faced a mounted plasma screen television, also rarely used, and a coffee table that was designed the same way as the desk and the nightstand was situated over a black rug with white stripes halfway between the TV and the couch. A single red rose was resting in the middle of the table in a clear vase.

The walls matched the large rug, black with thin white stripes, and the floor was solid white marble tile, with the occasional red placed here and there, that announced Bella's entrance to Heidi, who tore her eyes away from the crimson ceiling to stare sadly at her friend.

"I finally understand all those lyrics you write," Heidi stated, having heard Bella singing moments earlier. Bella nodded, her eyes cast down towards the floor as she made her way to the closet. She chose a black lace bra and matching panties, since that's all Heidi allowed her to buy when she forced her to go shopping, and tossed the now unnecessary towel out into the room. Taking that as her 'it's safe' cue, Heidi got up from the chair and stood in the doorway to the closet.

"So, what happened?" Bella asked cautiously, picking out a pair of sanded medium blue wash bootcut jeans from Sinful, pulling them on, before turning to glance at Heidi's perfect frame. Her physique was much the same as Rosalie, one of the few differences being her dark brown hair.

"Uh, well, um," Heidi stammered, looking for words that would not come. Bella halted in her search for a shirt, her eyebrows coming together in worry. Heidi was almost never speechless. "Ok, here's the thing," she finally decided, "Aro has decided to… convince the Cullens to join us!" The last part came out in a rush, and Heidi was quick to cover her face. When no screaming was heard, she peeked out from between her fingers to see that Bella had returned to her hunt for a shirt. The only difference in her appearance was the slight frown on her lips, her clenched jaw, and a tightened glare in her eyes. "Um, you heard me, right?"

Bella nodded, not trusting her voice, as she pulled down a black Sinful tee, examining it for a moment before pulling it on. It had two white, winged lions on the front facing in opposite directions, and a white crest in the middle of them with a Fleur de Leis sign surrounded by red designs.

"And you're not upset?" Heidi asked uncertainly, tossing Bella a pair of white ankle socks. She caught them with ease, lifting up her feet one at a time to put them on.

"Of course I am," Bella murmured, her voice constrained as she watched her actions. "But I'm done crying over them, Heidi. I won't scream and pout and throw a tantrum like the pathetic little human girl they left behind," she explained, grabbing her red converse hi tops and brushing past her friend, flipping the lights in the closet off and perching herself on the edge of her bed. Heidi pressed herself back into the leather chair, staring at her friend while she laced her sneakers.

"Well, that's great Bella! I'm proud."

Bella looked up, offering her friend a half smile and an eye roll, folding the bottom of her pants over the sneakers.

"Aro didn't say anything, did he?" she asked uncertainly, the corner of her lower lip unconsciously being pulled between her teeth. The old habit had yet to break, as she was almost always unaware when it was happening.

"He told them you were human when you knew the Cullens."

Bella sighed dejectedly. That was not good as she would, without a doubt, be the center of jokes for months to come, but it could have been much worse. She got up and went back into the bathroom, pulling out the hairdryer and letting her hair down.

"Where's Santiago?" Bella asked over the roar of the hair dryer.

"He went to go play X-Box with Corin," Heidi explained, entering the bathroom as well. She pulled a second hair dryer out of the cabinet beneath the sink. She plugged it in and worked on the back of Bella's hair. They switched off with the comb, and by the time they were done her hair was almost completely straight, and only a little frizzy.

Hair was one of the weakest parts of a vampire's body, and was therefore easily manipulated by human products, such as blow dryers, flat and curling irons, anti-frizz cream, hairspray, hair dye, and, if they were sturdy enough, scissors. Not too many vampires got haircuts, however, because their hair would not grow back, since their skin cells did not die. So when Bella had joined the Volturi forty five years earlier, she'd begged Heidi, who had quickly become her friend, to cut and dye her hair; not explaining the reason why. She wanted to be everything that she wasn't, should she ever run into Edward again. And it was only just paying off.

She took just over half an inch off and added layers, dyeing it black per Bella's request. And it had stayed that way ever since. She knew she could dye it back anytime she wanted, and had been planning to up until the return of her ex. But, seeing how devastated this look made him, she decided to keep it for a while.

They put the hair dryers away and pulled out two hair straighteners in their place. She had also chosen to wear it straight at all times, and it only took a little more effort than if she had been human.

"So, what are you going to do once Chelsea can 'convince' them to join us?" Heidi asked conversationally as she straightened a lock of hair in the back, and Bella scoffed.

"Yea right. They're not going to join us." Heidi's eyebrow arched, Bella noticed in the mirror. "They love their little family too much to do that. At least, as far as I knew they did…" she added as an afterthought. For all she knew, though, they all secretly hated each other. She wasn't sure of anything they'd told her anymore. How could she be? Edward had said so himself that he'd been lying.

"Eventually their thirst will win out, if nothing else," Heidi countered, working the top layers of Bella's hair. Bella shrugged, dropping the subject. They finished her hair and she pulled it back up into a high ponytail.

"Well, let's go watch Corin burn Santiago's Latin ass, shall we?" Heidi suggested, offering Bella her arm. Laughing and shaking her head, Bella linked her arm through her friends and the two of them entered the hallway.

"I think you're wrong," Bella argued.

"Wow, shocker," Heidi teased, and the two of them laughed as they walked, now separately, down the hall, and Bella's was almost completely genuine for a change.

_--_

_Ok, so this was a toughie to write. Mostly the Volturi meeting part, but a lot of it was difficult. And in case anyone was confused, this was the day that the Cullens were brought in. You'll find out what happened with them, hopefully, in the next chapter. I have a few more flashbacks planned and whatnot, plus describing what everyone else was up to during the seven weeks that the Cullens were locked up. So, stay tuned!_

_~Jazz~_

_What is the best angry song you know?_


	5. 4: The Only Question Now is How Long

_So I know this is later than it should've been, but I wanted it up in honor of New Moon! Um, so I've been getting really busy and stuff lately, and I don't think I can keep up with the every other Sunday updates. Sorry! But I used to be a few chapters ahead, and now I'm not. I've also been rereading the books, so that's taken up some time. Please understand!_

--

"Keep up, fucker!" Santiago shouted at Corin, a blonde haired Volturi guard member, from his guitar simulator. They were playing a video game that involved playing along with music straight from their MP3 player using various instrument controls and a special TV that Santiago had hooked up in his over sized bedroom. Corin was on the drums, and Heidi had stopped singing for the guys' instrumental solo. Corin was slowing down slightly.

"I'm trying, dipshit! It's not like I've ever heard this song before!"

They finished with an ok, which no one was pleased with, save for Bella whose ass was being laughed off on Santiago's red leather couch. They glared at her for a moment, and then Corin checked his watch.

"Oh shit, I gotta go!"

"Where?" Heidi asked, shoving Bella's legs over to join her on the sofa. The large mounted television rested above their heads, giving the two girls a full view of the room. It was much homier compared to the room Bella used.

"Ugh, Aro put me on guard duty," Corin groaned, grabbing his dark grey robe off the back of the black lounge chair. They all pretended not to see Bella's wince.

"How long have they been here now?" she whined, her head lolling to her side as her eyes slid closed. If ever there was a vampire that could get a headache, it would be her. "Three years?"

"Um, try seven and a half weeks."

"I think Aro should just give up," she stated, trying and failing to sound off hand. "I mean, they're never going to give in, so what's the point of wasting all that space and manpower?"

"I'll take it up with him next time I see him," their blonde friend assured sarcastically. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Put that away, unless you plan to make use of it," he teased, and she would've blushed if it were possible. "Later."

Bella waited until his footsteps could no longer be heard before she spoke again. "How much longer do you think they'll last?"

"Not much longer, I think. Their fantasies keep changing from food to outside interests and back again," Heidi responded solemnly. Her eyes shifted slightly, but Bella ignored that. She had other concerns.

It was inevitable that they would cave. With Chelsea's pull added onto the lack of sustenance it was only a matter of time before Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie gave in and joined the Volturi. The only question now is how long.

"Yea, but Ed-" Bella had to pause a moment, not yet accustomed to saying his name. "Edward's always been very stubborn, same as the other two."

"Stubborn enough to give up blood for almost two months?" Santiago countered skeptically. Bella shrugged. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part that they would continue to resist. "Plus the month before they arrived," he added as an errant thought.

Bella went back to 'her' room shortly after, lying down on the bed with her notebook. She still had not been able to think of anything to write and her deadline was quickly approaching. Sure, others had been difficult, but never like this. It was ridiculous. Sighing, she let her hands, and the book of paper they held, flop into her lap as she turned to stare at the white ceiling. Memories once again consumed the majority of her thoughts.

"_Where am I?" Bella asked, looking around after she had assessed the situation. Victoria was standing a few feet away, an endless smirk plastered on her wild face. They were still in a forest, but it wasn't in the Olympic Peninsula. These trees had brown bark, instead of the usual green, and the atmosphere was just a little too dry._

"_Shasta National Forest," Victoria responded casually, as if it should have been obvious. The mischievous smirk played across her pale lips grew infinitesimally while Bella glowered in confusion. "We were being followed, so you had to be moved." Still Bella remained speechless. "I am rather impressed with you. After I bit you, you didn't scream once." She sounded puzzled by this. Bella flinched, remembering the self-restraint she'd exhibited._

"_Followed by what?" she finally managed to choke out, curiosity momentarily outweighing the rage she felt at the older vampire. _

"_Other than the search parties your father was leading? There were three werewolves following us." A wicked grin evolved from the little smirk as horror overtook Bella's face. We barely made it out… alive."_

_~*~  
Five Years Later  
~*~_

"_We heard from a nomad of an uprising and wished to inform you of it," Victoria explained, exerting a politeness Bella had never truly experienced from the red-head before, to the leader of the Volturi. She spoke this aloud for the benefit of the other fourteen Volturi vampires in the room, while Aro processed what all he had seen in Victoria's memory. He stared at Bella curiously, and she could guess at his thoughts._

"_Yes, we had an inkling, but I appreciate your confirmation," Aro responded politely, his eyes tearing reluctantly away from the curious five-year-old vampire to answer her creator. "And we would very much appreciate your assistance." He spoke to the both of them now, and Bella's mouth fell open, her eyebrows pulling together in anger as she turned to Victoria._

"_We're _joining _them?" she asked in disbelief. _

"_Of course! Bella, it would be rude of us to simply deliver this information and then leave," she chastised. Bella's mouth snapped closed and she scowled at the floor, her arms crossed over her chest defensively._

"_Great, then it is settled! Victoria, Bella, welcome to the Volturi!" _

Sighing, Bella tossed the notebook to the ground and rolled over, settling in for a night of uneasy relaxation.

--

"There, there, Esme, it's gonna be alright," Jacob Black comforted awkwardly, patting Esme on the shoulder while she sobbed tearlessly on his massive one. Jasper, Alice, and Carlisle had left for hunting ten minutes earlier, and the haze of calm the former had held over his mother for all intents and purposes had been quick to fade.

"I just can't believe this is happening," she moaned, pure grief ringing in her words. The vision Alice had seen nearly a day ago would be taking effect in less than two hours, and it had everyone on edge. The other three were planning to be back within a half hour. And until then, Jacob had made it his obligation to do whatever he could for this kind, motherly figure, despite the fact that she was a vampire, and technically they weren't even friends. Seth Clearwater was there too, perched silently by her other side.

"We're all very upset by this, Esme, but crying won't change anything. We need to form a plan of action." Esme sniffed once and nodded, wiping her eyes as if to check for tears. Then she looked up, wincing in a poor attempt at a smile, and those in the room returned it.

Twenty seven minutes later Alice raced through the door, Carlisle and Jasper in tow. She raced over to the only mother she's ever known and pulled her into a hug. "Their guards have just been changed. Afton and Chelsea, along with a male named Corin, have started their shift. It won't be long now."

They sat in silent anguish while Alice watched the future, her arms still tight around Esme's shoulders. Carlisle held the hand that wasn't wrapped around Alice's tiny waste, his other squeezing her knee, and Jasper sat on the floor beside them all. Everyone else in the room dispersed, leaving the broken family alone to mourn what was coming.

--

As he and his siblings were marched-yes, marched-into the throne room, Edward wondered if he truly knew what he was getting them into. Of course he couldn't know, since Bella was shielding all Volturi thoughts from his mind. It pained him whenever he thought of the new Bella, how emotionless she'd become. Knowing that it was entirely his fault, not including the miniscule amount of blame he put on Victoria, did not help at all.

Alec stopped them outside of the large oak doors then, rapping on it three times before opening the door. The sight before them made the three former Cullens gasp internally. Nearly the entire Volturi guard was assembled in the room, the rest presumably out on assignments. Even so, it was an incredible sight.

The throne room was rather large; large enough for the guards to stand, shoulder to shoulder, in a line around the room, stopping at the outer armrests of Caius's and Marcus's thrones. The robes on the guards closest to the doors were a light grey, the color getting progressively darker until they reached Jane at the edge of Caius's throne, which was pure black. Alec, his robe matching his sister's, stepped through the threshold and continued on to stop in the open space next to Marcus's chair. Felix and Demetri, who had accompanied the other four on the Cullen's hunt in the woods, Also moved to their places among the darker robes.

After recovering from his momentary shock, Edward's freshly golden eyes immediately sought out the one dark robe he so desperately needed to see.

Her now black eyes were set into a tight glare, aimed at the ground, and her little hands were balled into tight fists. The ends of her hair that weren't hidden behind her charcoal hood were even darker than before, an indication that she had recently re-dyed it. Another shocker that he hadn't noticed before was her makeup. Her lips were shaded a cherry red, in professional lipstick, and the color stood out immensely against her white skin. Her eyelashes, like her hair, were pitch black, and incredibly long, fanning out over her cheekbones, and a subtle use of eyeliner was present just above them. Her eye-shadow started as the same shade of grey as her robe on the top lid at the edge of her liner, lightening to white when it reached her eyebrows. Alice would have called it smoky.

Overall, Bella looked incredibly sexy.

Felix shoved him not-so-gently in the back, forcing Edward to follow behind his siblings as they were guided forward to stand in front of Aro and his brothers. The former looked overwhelmed with glee and made no attempt to hide it.

"Ah, you three have no idea how pleased I am that you decided to reconsider!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

_Like we had any other choice,_ Emmett grumbled sarcastically in his head. Rosalie's thoughts were much the same.

The tension in the room suggested that no one else shared in Aro's excitement.

"Of course we will be needing to take necessary, and mind you, only temporary, precautions for the minimum of one year," he added. "For one, you will all three be sharing a room." Edward tried in vain to block out the atrocious thoughts pouring out from Rosalie and Emmett's minds. "And you will each be assigned a personal guard-" _babysitter,_ Rosalie corrected in her head, momentarily pausing her plans to find alone time with her husband, "to be sure that none of you step out of line."

Emmett was fighting off a growl, Rosalie a hiss, and Edward an eye-roll. When they had Chelsea manipulating their bonds the way she was, what was the point of wasting any more manpower on them? It was an unnecessary risk, no matter how little it would be.

"One other thing. I would like for each of you to check in with me once a day to make sure everything is going alright. Are we agreed?" They were, and Aro once again clapped his hands together. "Wonderful! Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, welcome to the Volturi!"

Half the guard, at least, groaned at this, and Aro chose to ignore them. There were other matters to attend to. They had a busy day of them.

"Felix, Bella, Heidi, and Alec, I would like for the four of you to stay here with us. Everyone else is dismissed." It took a few moments for the multitude of guard members to coordinate their escape, but eventually the room was empty of all but thirteen vampires. Of course Caius and Marcus, as well as the wives and Renata, Aro's personal body guard, had stayed behind as well.

Santiago had been the last to leave, sending Bella a last worried look before doing so. She returned it with a hopeless gaze, having dropped the pathetic excuse for a reassuring smile. Who was she fooling? Her unexplained depressed mood was only partly due to the Cullens. Another part was the reason they were being asked to stay behind.

"Well, first thing is first," Aro began, glancing around at their significantly smaller party. None of the guard members had moved from their place on the wall, Aro waved them over impatiently. Sighing, Bella shoved herself off the wall after Heidi, her hands buried deep in the pockets of her light grey jeans. She didn't look up to meet Edward's gaze, which she could feel boring holes into her face, and instead stared at Aro accusingly. He sighed. "Bella, I explained this to you before, and I wish you would see reason. If I had any other choice I would gladly take it." Her expression never wavered. "Well, the four of you," he motioned to his dark-robed guard members, "know why you're here. You've been assigned the task of guard duty." Three pairs of golden eyes turned to stare, shocked, at the Volturi members who ignored them.

"Felix, you will be looking after Emmett." No one was surprised there. A wicked gleam passed through both of their eyes. "Heidi, you will be looking after Rosalie." Neither of them looked pleased by this news. But what disturbed them both more was who was left as Edward's guard. Heidi strongly hoped it was Alec, but she didn't appear optimistic. "And Bella," Edward's eyes burned intensely, silently begging her to turn and look at him. She didn't, but only just. Her fists clenched impossibly tighter, as well as her jaw, and she glowered determinedly ahead. "You will be looking after Edward." And Aro's tone was almost apologetic.

And for the first time that afternoon, Bella turned her attention to Edward. It was a look of pure disgust, hiding the pain and remorse lurking below the surface of her pitch black eyes. He winced, the persuasive power of his eyes gone for the moment. She looked away again before it could return. "Oh and one more thing," Aro added, glancing back at her. What more could he want from her?! She the question swam in her eyes. "Your shield." He glanced at Edward, seeming a bit more reluctant about this than his other requests.

She didn't argue, although it was very apparent that she wanted to, and closed her eyes, stretching her shield out to wrap around the three former Cullens. She shuddered as their unfortunately wonderful mental flavors entered her presence.

"Are we done now?" she all but hissed, her body aimed for the door while her head angled back at her 'master'. He nodded once, and without another word or glance she took off running. It took Heidi all of three quarters of a second to realize where her friend was headed, and then she was off after her, screaming Bella's name and leaving Edward with the last thought of Not again!

--

_Ok, so this is a very short, random chapter, but you finally know what happened! (Not that I doubt many of you were expecting it.) And I know, how predictable that Bella would have to babysit Edward?! I really didn't want to do it, but I had no choice! _

_~Jazz~_

_What was your favorite scene from New Moon, if you've seen it? _


	6. 5: Imma Have You Drunk and Throwing Up

_Alright, I wasn't completely sure how to start this chapter, so that's why it took a little while. And I've been busy with the Holidays. I hope it was worth the wait._

--

There are many things in life that Edward cannot tolerate. Being taken by surprise, for example, really agitates him, since it happens so infrequently. The same thing goes for being outsmarted, and his mind has a very low tolerance for practicing patience. But above all else, Edward Cullen simply cannot stand being powerless.

Like after Bella ran out. Without any form of an explanation, he, Emmett, and Rosalie were shown to their new quarters-that they would all be sharing-and were then left to their own devices. He now sat on the edge of his bed, his head between his knees and his hands tugging the strange-colored hair at the nape of his neck. Santiago's room was just above his, and Edward was focused intently on the Latino's thoughts, waiting for any sign of Bella.

She had been gone for six hours, thirty seven minutes, and twenty two point six seconds, and so far Edward had no idea what was going on with her. The only hint anyone had given him was a pair of bright red eyes – Bella's eyes. He could guess that she was out hunting, but then why would Heidi still be out there searching for her? It made no sense, and the only thing that agitated him more than not knowing was the fact that he couldn't demand that someone clue him in. He was utterly and completely powerless in Italy, and he almost wished that they'd never agreed to join the guard. Like they had a choice with Chelsea preying on their weakening bonds.

He had uncovered some useful information, however, since having gained access to their thoughts. For one, even while under her shield, anyone whose extra talent involved the mind was useless against Bella. He felt both proud and frustrated about this. Proud because he knew how she liked that he couldn't read her thoughts, and therefore she probably liked that others' powers would never affect her as well. But he felt frustrated because he was still no closer to entering her mind than he had been that first fateful day in the Forks High School cafeteria. It was _very_ frustrating.

He was also able to learn whose powers worked on Bella, and whose didn't. It was fascinating. For example, Marcus could sense all of the emotional ties that Bella had with anyone, but Chelsea could not touch them. This was a little disheartening, however, because it meant that she was with the Volturi on her own terms, instead of being held against their natural will like the former Cullens.

There were so many secrets of the Volturi to take in that, while the majority of his mind was focused on finding out where in the hell Bella went, the rest of it was poking through the minds of his new colleagues, learning everything he could about them.

An atrocious rap song blared from Santiago's pocket almost directly over Edward's head, after Bella had been gone for now six hours, thirty seven minutes, and twenty four point three seconds, and it was flipped open before one unidentifiable word could be heard. Edward froze into a statue on the edge of his black-sheeted bed, now focused solely on the conversation above.

"Did you find her?!" inquired Santiago's frantic accented voice.

"Yea, finally!" Heidi responded over a loud song blaring through her end of the phone. It was some horrendous excuse for a dance song, in Edward's mind, and he could distinctly make out Bella's new musical voice singing along with it. The hell?

"Heidiii," Bella slurred, after pausing her singing. "Dance withth me!"

"Um, ok sweetie, I'll be right there!" Heidi responded uncertainly. "Hurry up and get here," she whispered into Santiago, clearly meaning for only him to hear.

"Come oon Heiiidi!" Bella almost sounded drunk, an ever-angering Edward noted, nearly ripping apart the brand new quilt beneath his fingers. Was this some kind of game? Santiago did not seem amused.

"Heidi, just placate her until I get there. Where are you?" He memorized the name and address of the club Bella had been located at, and Edward met Santiago at the stares, ignoring the only slightly curious thoughts of his brother and sister. They had other preoccupations to busy themselves with.

"I'm coming with you," Edward informed Santiago, stopping him dead in his tracks for just a moment.

"Like hell you are," Bella's friend returned, pushing past her ex-boyfriend. This did not discourage him, and he followed Santiago all the way to the garage.

"You're supposed to be watching me until Bella gets back, right?" Santiago's jaw tightened infinitesimally, and Edward spurred on. "Well, how happy would Aro be if you took off, just like Heidi and Bella?"

"Get in," Santiago ordered angrily, gesturing to the passenger door of a silver Lamborghini.

It had been too long since Edward had been in a car, let alone one as fast and beautiful as this. As they sped through the streets of Verona, and then eventually out of the city limits and through the countryside, he took in the delicious smell of the leather upholstery and listened as the impossibly clear music blared through the stereo. Even if it was hip hop.

Santiago's thoughts were a whirlwind of colorful words, all aimed at Bella, and at first Edward tried to block them out. As they got more and more demeaning, however, he couldn't help the low growl that escaped through his clenched teeth. Santiago's head snapped in Edward's direction, and the gold eyes met the red eyes glare with just as much menace.

"What's your problem?" Santiago demanded.

"You. Stop insulting Bella."

Without voicing it aloud, Santiago realized what Edward was hearing, and his crimson eyes rolled in annoyance. _Oh, you're the only one aloud to slander her?_ At Edward's confused look, Santiago laughed, short and quick, without humor. _She told me what you did to her. Everything you said to her. You're such a hypocrite. _For a moment Santiago was focused on not crushing the steering wheel between his hands, and then he was thinking again; more to himself then to Edward. _But yea, I shouldn't be so mean to her. It was to be expected, after all. She's been confined to the castle grounds for two months._ A pointed red glance was sent Edward's way.

"What, her shield only works from a certain distance?" he guessed.

"Not at all. Once she kept it over all of us, minus Alec who was testing it, all the way from France. It just takes a lot more focus. And when Bella goes out, she's usually anything but." He made a pointed thought at his conversation with Heidi from earlier.

"She does this a lot?"

Santiago hesitated, wondering how much he should be divulging. He was already focused a great deal on not remembering all of the conversations he'd had with Bella in which she told him about her past. She definitely wouldn't be pleased for Edward to see her so weak.

"Not so much as of late." _Besides, being stuck in the castle was only part of the reason she reacted this way._ Another pointed look was sent at Edward, and it clicked in play.

"So is she really drunk? Or is she just pretending?"

_You'll see._ The rest of the car ride was spent with Santiago singing along in his head to the radio, and Edward left to decipher these new revelations.

The entire trip from Volterra to Florence should have taken them an hour and a half if they followed traffic laws; they made it in just under fourteen minutes with Santiago traveling top speed the entire way. The agonizing part was parking.

The closest available space was three blocks away, and with the streets as crowded as they were, the two vampires were stuck walking at a fast human pace.

Getting in wasn't so hard; the bouncer seemed familiar with Santiago, and let them in without question. His thoughts were afraid as he remembered a time a few years earlier when he had refused to let Santiago in. It was his first night on the job, and he hadn't been properly informed that any employee of Volterra Records, a music production company, was welcome. And so Santiago had not-so-politely informed him, and ever since then there was no problem.

Their next obstacle was locating Bella and Heidi. Even in a place this packed with people, they had no trouble being found. A large pack of human males were giving them a small birth to dance and despite her previous anger, Edward gathered that Heidi was enjoying herself just as much as Bella; and the hormone-ridden humans panting at them.

Edward and Santiago made it to the girls just in time for a horny college student to approach Bella. One look from Edward, however, had him tucking tail and running. Bella looked up, past Edward as if he wasn't there, to glare at Santiago.

"What arrre you doin-g hhhere?!" she whined, still slurring her words. She turned her scowl suspiciously on Heidi, who glanced down with a guilty expression. "Meany."

She didn't fight them as they each took one of her arms and began dragging her towards the entrance/exit, the pack of men protesting loudly until Edward sent them a very pointed glare. They began to search for women of their own species once more, and the golden eyed vampire followed after his fellow guard members.

"What iss _he_ doing heerre?!" Bella demanded in a whisper, just as Edward stepped out of the club. She glared at him while Santiago answered.

"Well, since you decided to take off, I was put on babysitting duty until you returned." She glanced up at him, apology on her face. Her eyes were covered by a pair of large designer sunglasses, but Santiago could see the bright red of her eyes easily. The lenses were simply there to assuage the humans. Heidi was wearing a pair as well.

"Bella, I would've stayed with you if I had known that Aro had this planned."

With a humph, Bella turned in the wrong direction of Santiago's car.

"Bella, my car is this way."

"I'm takin my owwn car backkk," she responded defiantly.

"You're too drunk to drive," Heidi disagreed, snatching the keys out of Bella's pocket before she knew what was going on. "See, your reflexes are way too slow." Heidi leant in conspiratorially. "Almost human slow."

Bella gasped angrily, but Heidi was already walking away in the direction of where Bella had parked. Santiago grabbed Bella's hand and started off in the direction of his own vehicle, a silent Edward following behind them obediently.

--

"_I'm on patron, tequila/I'm drunk off margaritas/That patron, tequila/Me and my mamacita/Hey girl, where's your drink?/We gon' all get real drunk tonight/Hey girl, I got bud/We can all get fucked up"_

"Bella, would you please stop singing and dancing?" Santiago pleaded for the hundredth time since she'd insisted on finishing the song she and Heidi had been dancing to.

"You sstop sssinging and dancccing!" She pointed her finger right in his face, and he swatted it away.

"I'm not doing either of those things." She giggled, finally sitting still. She continued singing, however, and Santiago sat in mute complaint. Edward was ignored completely, left to silently observe his ex-girlfriend.

He couldn't understand how she was intoxicated. His brain could not comprehend it, and that was really saying something. And still, he could not find any other explanation as he watched her poke Santiago conspiratorially in the face, and then proceeded to flick his ear. Neither old Bella nor what he'd seen of this new Bella would be doing these sorts of things if she wasn't under some sort of influence. He'd asked them three times earlier and each question was ignored in silence. It was frustrating.

"Turn around!" Bella ordered for the umpteenth time, stretching the O and U into a long whine. When Santiago didn't listen, she attempted to grab the steering wheel from his hands.

Santiago cussed, his arm suddenly pressed against her torso and arms, pinning her to her seat. He continued to drive using one hand. Edward decided he could be of service.

Bella screamed when his hands reached out and grabbed her arms, holding her in place. "Let go! Don't touch me!"

"Are you going to continue distracting Santiago?" Edward asked, his voice calm and authoritative. Her only response was a low, ferocious growl through her clenched teeth. Sighing, he released her.

"Don't ever touch me again," she threatened, still growling, and glared at him through the rearview mirror. Other than that she was a perfect, angry statue for the rest of the drive back to Volterra.

--

"It's about time you got back," an impatient Felix exclaimed as the four vampires drove into the garage. He was waiting there with Alec, Jane, Emmett, and Rosalie, all of whom had varying degrees of rage in their expressions.

"Some people might find sseparation anxiety cute," Bella mused, her slurring a slightly under control. She was far from sober, proven by the way she had to carefully plan her words, but she had gotten over her bout of temper and managed to only stagger slightly as she walked forward to the waiting immortals. "I, howwever, find it disturbing."

"I'm being serious, Isabella. This was completely irresponsible!"

"She's been locked up for two months, what did you expect to happen?!" demanded Heidi who stepped in between Bella and Felix, hopefully to prevent any trouble.

"I expected her to be mature about the situation, not run of and get drunk!"

Bella managed to step around her mediating friend and pressed herself up against Felix, the angry scowl back on her face. "Listen hear buddy," she began, standing on the tips of her toes in order to speak to him face to face. "You have no idea what I've been through. Ssso don't go running your mouth to me about being responsible!"

Edward gaped in shock as Felix took a step back, actually a little _afraid_ of the five foot four intoxicated skinny female vampire in front of him. But his voice did not waver when next he spoke. "You have no right-" he began, reaching out a hand to keep her from advancing.

She cut off both his words and his arm, snatching it in her own before it had moved to inched, and bent it backwards so far that a tiny yelp escaped his mouth. "I have every right." Her voice was venomous, her hand tightening around his thick forearm until the tip of her middle finger and the tip of her thumb touched from opposite ends. "Or have you somehow forgotten?"

There wasn't a single trace of the drunken girl Edward had witnessed earlier in the evening, and in her place was the vicious creature that had sent he and his siblings to imprisonment two months earlier. He was ashamed to realize that it relieved him slightly, to know that he wasn't the only person on whom she unleashed her wrath.

Felix wisely didn't respond to Bella's rhetorical question, and instead focused on not remembering that humiliating night three years prior. He didn't need the Cullen kids knowing about it. "I haven't taken your job because I don't want it, but don't make me change my mind. Unless that's what you want."

"No. It isn't."

"Good, then are we understood?"

"God, yes, just let go of my arm!"

She smirked, tightening her grip even more for a brief second before she released him. Glaring at her, he massaged over her handprint a couple of times, while Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett stared in awe at the girl they had known to be a weak and powerless human.

It was Emmett who broke the tense silence that followed. "So how did you get drunk, anyway?"

Bella rolled her eyes. Were they really that thick? It wasn't rocket science. "You kill a drunk human. _Duh_!" She then turned her now perky attention on her two friends. "Come on! Let's go find Corin and party while I'm still fun!" Latching on to one of each of their arms, she skipped away towards the entrance door. Felix ordered the former Cullens to go after them, and he, Jane, and Alec followed; the twins teasing him about his encounter with Bella.

--

_So if I got a bear drunk before I killed it, would I get drunk too?_ Emmett wondered to himself, sitting on the black leather sofa in the room he was sharing with his brother and his wife. _Aw man, just think of how much fun that would be to fight!_

Edward rolled his eyes at his brother's thoughts, the majority of his mind focused on the room next to theirs. Bella was in the bathroom, retching into a toilet. The alcohol had finally been separated from the blood and her body was now ridding her of it.

According to her friends' thoughts, Bella's room was deep in the basement of the castle. But for the time being she would be sharing a room with Heidi, for as long as she was guarding Edward.

_It actually doesn't sound worth it to me, anymore,_ Emmett, who was also listening to Bella, decided. There was silence then, aside from the TV Rosalie was attempting to watch. _Geez, who would've thought we'd end up here?_ Emmett's mind wandered off into the memory of the day Eleazar had called them nearly forty-five years ago, taking Edward along for the ride.

_The Cullens had finally settled into a permanent residence, in a small town in Maine. It had been five years since they left Bella. They been doing individual things up until then. The majority of the family had settled in Alaska for a while. Carlisle and Jasper were studying respective things at a nearby college, Esme was working on blueprints for some different renovations, and Alice was looking into her past. Rosalie and Emmett were around for the most part, occasionally taking off to travel; mostly they just wanted to be away from the desolation that had become their family. Edward was hiding away somewhere, convincing himself to stay away from happiness. Only a few months after they settled in did they receive a startling call from one of the Denalis. _

"_What they've been saying about the Volturi is true, Carlisle!" a half-mad sounding Eleazar exclaimed the nanosecond after Carlisle had answered his phone. "I can't believe I never noticed it before!"_

"_Calm down, Eleazar. What's happened?"_

_Eleazar explained that Garrett, an adventurous nomad, had passed through Alaska on his way to Africa to join quite a few other vampires that were forming a 'resistance' to the Volturi. Of course there had been rumors of it for a while, but none of the Cullens, or the Denalis, for that matter, had taken it seriously. Until that point, it seemed._

"_I was trying to find an argument to what he was saying, about the Volturi using their authority to gain more power, but the more I thought of it the more I realized it to be true!" He was talking so fast that it was almost impossible for any of them to keep up. Of course the rest of the Cullens had begun to listen in. _

_Eleazar explained that every time there was a vampire with a certain talent that Aro coveted, some evidence would soon turn up against their coven. When Aro, his brothers, and a few members of their guard would show up, the coveted one would be proven innocent, and Chelsea, a vampire with the talent to manipulate relationship ties, would work her magic on said vampire until he wished to join the guard. An invitation would be extended, and accepted._

"_This almost happened to the Egyptians, but they proved their innocence without anyone coming to harm. Only afterwards did they begin to think of ways to let others know of this revelation, so as not to tip off Aro."_

_The decision was quick after that. The Cullens packed up their things and headed to Africa, gathering friends and acquaintances along the way. _

They'd been safe up until a few months ago, when Bella turned them in.

_Wonder why she waited so long._

Edward could only shrug. There was a lot he didn't understand about his ex-girlfriend.

--

_Ok, so I finally managed to finish this, and I hope that I answered the question many of you have been asking. Please review!_

_~Jazz~_

_No question this time. Happy Holidays!_


	7. AN Sorry!

Ok, so I know I haven't updated in forever, but I had the worst case of writer's block. I know that's not an original excuse, but it's true. I wasn't sure where I was headed with this story, but now I think I have a pretty good idea. I just need time to write it up. So I promise that I'm not giving up, but it's going to take some time before anything new is posted. I'm sorry!

~Jazz~


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